Backtalk 4/05/2012

A former University of California at Berkeley quarterback set a new world record in the world of competitive paper-airplane flying. Joe Ayoob set a new distance record — 226 ft and 10 in. — inside a 747 hangar at Mc- Clellan Air Force Base, near Sacramento.

“It was a proud moment,” said Ayoob. “I used to make paper airplanes every day when I was a kid. I love it.” The YouTube video recording the event went viral on sports and news sites in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Shortly thereafter, the Web site of John Collins, the designer of the winning glider, known as “the paper airplane guy,” was unavailable due to “exceeded bandwidth.” Collins and Ayoob have been working together for over a year.

To help teach kids about aerodynamics and the scientific method, Collins wrote the books, The Gliding Flight and Fantastic Flight.

The flight was recorded on video and measured by a surveyor with a laser to qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records. It takes around three to six months for the record to become official.

The flight beat the current record by 19.5 ft, held by Stephen Krieger of Bellevue, Wash. “Stephen is telling me he thinks he can beat our distance,” Collins told the Marin Independent Journal. “So it’s on.”

Boca Bearing Co., Boynton Beach, Fla., is celebrating 25 years in business by giving away over $20,000 in cash and prizes. The International 2012 Boca Bearing Innovation Contest is the Boca’s way of supporting individual or company innovators with a focus on art, science, technology, engineering and math who will push the limit of new technologies that will drive our future economy. Winners will be chosen based on a video submission of their innovative, progressive, or overall “cool” mechanical projects that use ball, roller, or linear bearings or any form of full ceramic or ceramic-hybrid bearings anywhere in the application.

The voting public will choose one finalist each month to win an iPad2 ($500 value each). Boca Bearings will choose the grand-prize winner and two runner-ups from the monthly finalists. The two runner-ups will each win a $2,500 3D printer from MakerBot Industries, Brooklyn, N.Y. The grand-prize winner will receive a $10,000 check.